From: "netvort@aol.com" <netvort@aol.com>
<br>To: "joshhoff@aol.com" <joshhoff@aol.com>
<br>Sent: Friday, July 22, 2016, 08:37:30 AM EDT
<br>Subject: Turn, Turn, Turn: Netvort, Balak 5776
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Turn, Turn, Turn
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By Rabbi Joshua (periodically known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
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  Bila’am began his journey accompanied by the offers of Moav, to find a spot where, at Balak’s request, he would curse the Jews. Although he told the officers that he could only do what God told him to do, and God had told him not to curse the nation, he still hoped, somehow to curse them. God was angry with Bila’am for his persistence in this matter, in his desire to act against His will, and dispatches an angel to impede him in his way. His she-donkey, seeing the angel holding a sword standing in the path, moves away from it three times, and each time Bila’am strikes the animal, prodding it to continue on the path. God, then opens the mouth of the donkey and it says to Bila’am “What have I done that you have struck me these three times” (Bamidbar 22:28). Rashi says that “these three times” is an allusion to the three pilgrimage festivals, Pesach, Shavu’os, and Sukkos, when the Jews leave their homes and go to Yerushalayim to encounter the divine presence and bring the obligatory sacrifices of the festivals. The donkey was in effect, saying, “you wish to uproot a nation that celebrates three festivals during the year.” The Maharal of Prague, in his commentary to Rashi, Gur Aryeh, asks why specifically this mitzvah stood in contrast to Bila’ams intention and merited protection for the nation?
<p>  The Maharal answers that time has a beginning, a middle, and an end, and the three festivals occur at the beginning, middle, and end of the summer. The nation’s celebration of the festivals at these three times indicates that their existence spans all of time (and the winter is excluded from this reckoning because it is not a time of growth), and are thus eternal, and not subject to any attempt to destroy them. This eternality, says the Maharal, is also brought out by the simcha, the joy, that the nation practices during the festivals, as simcha is a function of shleimus, of perfection. Bila’am’s intended curse could not affect such a nation.<p>
  Perhaps we can suggest another explanation. Bila’am’s ability to curse, the rabbis tell us, was a function of knowing the exact time of day when God, so to speak, exhibits anger. This amount of time was infinitely small, but Bila’am, by, as it were, latching onto this moment, was able to harness his curse to the anger of God, and bring distress upon his intended victim. Thus, Bila’am’s ability was not really in his control, but dependent on a time that was outside of his control. In contrast, the celebration of the three festivals actually demonstrates that the Jewish nation has control over time. The beis din determines when the new month begins, and, based on their determination, the date for the festival is set. The middle blessing of the festival shemoneh esrei amidah ends with the words, “Who sanctifies Yisroel and the times,” meaning that God first sanctifies Yisroel, and Yisroel then sanctifies the times, determining when the festival will occur. Bila’am, then, whose ability to curse was dependent on an occurrence in time outside of his control, could not prevail over Yisroel, whose celebration of the three festivals indicated that time is under their control.